Thursday, April 28, 2011

"It is Batch #2 of the 2011 Imperial Stout that exhibits the Brettanomyces trait. In retrospect, we should have called attention to this Brett character on the label. Because we didn’t, and because some consumers got a beer that was different from the one they had a legitimate right to expect, we’re offering a refund to anybody who feels shortchanged, and who can reasonably demonstrate that they did in fact buy a bottle of Batch #2 of our 2011 Imperial Stout."

Brewery DADA has been in the minds of homebrewers Annie and Mercury McCall since they started brewing together in 2007. Their brews are marked by an adventurous spirit of invention and experimentation. They liken their brew style and aesthetic to the tenants of the DADA artistic movement, namely, a very specific absence of definitions and functions aligned with the propensity to collage and combine disparate ephemera.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

The phrase of the moment is "tap takeover" and who are we to resist. This Wednesday (the 27th) we will be taken over by New Belgium and be pouring eight of their beers.

We are happy to have both Love, the unblended base for La Folie and other sour beers, and Super Cru, their 20th anniversary ale, to serve.

In addition, we will be pouring Le Terroir, La Folie, Fat Tire, Mothership Wit, Ranger IPA and Somersault, their new spring seasonal.

PLUS, with any beer purchase, a globe glass is FREE.

But that's not all. We will also have cheese samples gratis with some (perhaps all) of the beers. And to top it all off Miss Lauren Salazar, sensory analyst extraordinaire, will grace us with her presence.

Smoked quail, ramps, wild mushroom empanada paired with Pangea. I think this was my lest favorite dish. The filling was good, but the empanada crust was chewy. Ooo that Pangea is sweet, a sample is nice though.

Seared bison and chimayo chile posole. This is a stomach killer for a pseudo-veg like myself, but I ate the whole thing. The posole was really good, but I prefer my posole in a bowl and a lot more of it. Cut the meat, give us a cup of posole. Paired with Raison D’Etre.

Cherry and Duck confit, barley risotto. Oh yeah, really loved this. It was paired with Immort Ale, but wish I had a normal 60-Minute IPA. That would have been perfect.

Bittersweet chocolate ganache in a ginger caramel crisp with candied grapefruit. The grapefruit was cool, but man do I hate ginger desserts. I like very basic desserts. Sorbet - perfect. Paired with this:

Vintage Fort, my favorite beer of the night. Love this beer. Forget a dessert, just serve this. Pair it with yr full belly.

Chris and Josh.

At the end of the night they showed some outtakes from Brew Masters. That lasted a good two minutes, almost as long as the show was on the air.

Thanks to Dogfish Head and Alamo Drafthouse for having us out. Good time as always.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

The TABF is happening on May 1 and it benefits the Austin YMCA. RSVP and make donation (suggested donation has been lowered to $50). Donate and donate big. You will be rewarded, these breweries, brew pubs and companies will be pouring:

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Last Thursday was the STRANGE BREW BEER PARTY, part of this year's Off-centered Film Fest. The line up was killer, as mentioned earlier. Doors opened at 6, I got there at 8:45. Guess what? Yup, missed all those amazing beers. When I arrived there was still some good stuff on tap, but not the ones I was looking forward to. I can't complain, I should have arrived earlier. Still, it made me cranky. What a baby! We grabbed a couple 90-Minutes and plopped down to soak up the movie.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Just got an email from Twisted X. The big news is that they are set to launch in less than a month. Congratulations guys. Also he attached the above photo of their tap handle. I like em. More details about initial release party coming next week.

WHY: Because we can! And to thank you, our loyal friends and customers, for helping us to be where we are today!

YOU BRING: Outdoor chairs if you've got them.

Please join us this coming Saturday for a great afternoon of food, beer, music and fun. Musical lineup includes: Olde World, Leo Rondeau, Corinne Rose, The Lennings, Chinask, and DW & Superlites. Children are welcome (there will be activities for them), but please, no pets, four-legged, feathered, or slithering (even on a leash).

As many of you may know, there are a number of bills in the House and Senate this legislative session pertaining to the business of small breweries and brewpubs. We'll have a table with information re HB 2436 / SB 1575 (which would allow a small brewery - under 75,000 bbl to sell beer for on and off premises consumption to you, the ultimate consumer); here's a link to the Facebook page in support of this very important legislation - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Texas-82R-HB-2436-SB-1575/115242871889981.

Our Anniversary Ale is going to be a hoppy Belgian style ale with German Pils malt, a touch of Belgian candy sugar, german hops for the early kettle additions and american hops for the late kettle, dry hop and hop back.

In the fall of 2007 my wife and I traveled through Europe for 10 weeks. We ate a lot of food and drank of a lot of beer (and wine). Not enough food, not enough beer. These were our last beers in London:

Euro Beer #9 - The Harp

Killing time before meeting up with a friend for dinner, we stumbled upon the Harp. And what a discovery! I knew upon walking into the pub, it was the real deal. This was to be our last beer in London and it was a fine way to end our days there. The spot was jumping with after-work drinkers. We grabbed our pints and sneaked towards the back. It felt good to be in a legit pub. Look how happy I was, almost a grin. The beer:

Thursday, April 7, 2011

(512) Brewing Company: Firkin of Cascabel Stout with extra peppers! A Tex-mex twist on a traditional English style – this firkin has been blessed with even MORE Cascabel peppers. Milky malt and potent peppers together in holy matrimony!

Circle Brewing Company: Envy Amber! Envy is the perfect balance between malt and hops. Not too dry or too sweet, it is a full-bodied and complex beer without being overly heavy. The notes of dried fruit make this the kind of beer that is hard to have just one of.

Dogfish Head Craft Brewed Ales: 90 Minute IPA! An imperial IPA that is so solid that it’s hard for a sentence on a blog to do it justice. Although it is hopped continuously for, you guessed it, 90 minutes, it is not as bitter as you would expect – there is a citrus and malt sweetness that works with the hops to make one of the best sips of beer in America. Dogfish is showing off their MORE of their portfolio at the other Off-Centered Film Fest screenings and they are all a force to be reckoned with.

Independence Brewing Company: Brewluminati! A special single malt, single hop ale that aims to overthrow mass produced, mass marketed American beers one gulp at a time.

Jester King Craft Brewery: JK/Mikkeller collaboration: Drink’in the Sunbelt! This is a special tapping of this hoppy, flavorful session ale that was made with the world renowned Danish “gypsy brewer.”

Live Oak Brewing Company: Chipotle Liberation Ale! A special take on the delicious citrusy yet hoppy Live Oak staple fortified with the scoville defying chili peppers!

Real Ale Brewing : Highlander! From Real Ale’s Mysterium Verum range of experimental beers comes Highlander – Real Heavy Scotch Ale aged in French and American wine barrels and then blended together. This interesting big beer will be a hot item at the event as it’s rarely released to the public. There can be only one.

Thirsty Planet Brewing: Double Buckethead IPA! By now, Austin beer drinkers are familiar with the rightfully popular Buckethead, but most locals haven’t yet had a chance to partake in its incredible and even hoppier brother the Double

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

What would HB 2436/SB 1575 do? It would let breweries of a certain size (under 75k barrels) to sell directly to the consumers. It would allow these breweries to have real tasting rooms (bars) selling beer for off-premises and/or on-premises quaffing.

Earlier today, I sat down with a Chip McElroy of Live Oak to discuss HB 2436/SB 1575. Actually we just talked on the phone. I was sitting down, not sure about Chip.

Chip said that this is primarily a marketing issue. It would be a great tool for reaching

potential new customers and helping test possible new products. Sales would be made face to face, with the people who actually made the beer. In addition to the marketing aspect, the bill would open up a new revenue stream, which does not currently exist. Still though, most of their beer would not be sold at the brewery. The vast majority of sales would still be made at third party outlets, via wholesalers. And this, Chip pointed out, is a very important feature of the bill: Allows for sales at breweries without threatening the three tier system.Similar bills have been introduced in the past two sessions, but Chip and co. have a lot of confidence in this "tight, clean" bill

Still have not tried all four of the SN Anniversary Beers? It's not too late. Alamo is hosting Sierra Nevada 30th Anniversary Feast: HIGH SIERRA. Drink the four beers, watch High Sierra and chomp on some good grub. It's happening April 18. The menu:

Monday, April 4, 2011

We will utilize our "open house" schedule for the first 3 stops. This means that we will be signing tickets at all of the first three stops for three hours so you can enjoy a beer at each one with only a quarter of the people crammed into each establishment. You will get your ticket at whichever stop you decide to visit first. But, VERY IMPORTANT, we will only be handing out the tickets between 3 PM and 4 PM. Thus, you still need to start between 3 and 4. Then, at 6 PM, everybody will gather at one final stop and that is where we will award the prize.

The prize for making all four stops will be our newly designed Pub Crawl pint glass! And as always, designated drivers are both eligible for the award and encouraged to attend. Also, some locations will have a limited amount of Divine Reserve No. 11!

So here is the layout and our vague directions:

The first three stops:A little bar full of LOVE and JOY! Think Neches river.A 'SKINNY' little ballroom on San Jacinto/2nd St;Is it GINGER or Maryann?

The final stop:At 6:00 we'll head west to a DIVINE place near Rio Grande, where we will have beer upstairs and downstairs.

Remember that cash is helpful, be kind to your waitstaff, and always, always appear in public enjoying a Saint Arnold. We hold those that arrange for transportation to and from or use designated drivers in the highest regard!

Yesterday was the Drink Beer. Save Texas. event at Uncle Billy's on the Lake. It was my first time out there. If you have not been, go. It's great, everything you love about Uncle Billy's and more. And a stellar view. Don't look over the railing if you have a fear of heights, shit is high up there.

Since Beertown Austin (Josh) and I were repping as a unified front (Austin Beer Guide) for the day, I am going to steal some of their write up (these are Josh's photos too!):

Thanks to the Uncle Billy’s crew and Texas Beer Freedom for having us out for their fundrasing event to help improve the future of Texas craft beer. We heard good bands, drank some House Brown 660, toured the new brewhouse and enjoyed the views. Not a bad Sunday.

If you read this blog semi-regularly you should know about House Bill 660 and its efforts to allow brewpubs to sell their beers off-site. If you don’t know anything about it just go here, here or here to get schooled on what’s going on.

There’s still a long way to go, but it’s not too late to help. Check out the Texas Beer Freedom website for ways to donate, get involved or catch the next event.

Some beers. Nice shirt.

Rocking bands. And look, you can see a little peak of the lake in the back.